On the Eve of Uncertain Tomorrows

Considered both a West Indian and a Canadian writer, Bissoondath began his literary career as a short-story writer. His first book Digging Up the Mountains (1985) is a collection of short stories relating the experiences of immigrants in Toronto as they combat feelings of nostalgia and marginality and try to adapt to their new home. Bissoondath show more returns to the theme of placelessness in the novel A Casual Brutality (1988), in which the protagonist feels alienated in both Toronto and Casquemada. Bissoondath's most recent novel, The Innocence of Age (1992), is set in Toronto and is a departure from these themes. Here, defying the current appropriation of voice debate, he uses a Canadian Caucasian father and son to describe the difficulties in parent-child relationships, especially evident in communication between fathers and sons. As a relatively new writer, Bissoondath has received some critical attention, but as yet there is no extensive study of his work. (Bowker Author Biography) show less